excuses

WELL, here is my list of excuses for not blogging in.....oh, like 2 months.....

1. holidays = crazy-ness

2. work = crazy busy stress-ness (in fact, too much stress that I decided to quit last week)

3. Church callings (one calling and one assignment - both time consuming)

4. EMMA (need I say more)

and.........

excuse #5 which is the best excuse of all,

(drum roll please)

Baby #2 is on the way!!!!! We are just ecstatic to be pregnant and feel so blessed to bring another baby into our family! I am 14 weeks along and my due date is July 18th, 2012. (not too thrilled to be 8-9 months pregnant in the dead of summer here in AZ but I'll survive........ I hope.....)

So since I've been so busy with trying to work and be a mom and be a pregnant mom, blogging had to be put on hold. BUT NO MORE. I am done working and my morning sickness/lack of energy is finally fading so I'm back. :)

Well let's just get to the punch - here are our holiday pictures (starting with Thanksgiving)

11-23-11: We headed up to St. George, Utah to spend Thanksgiving with my dad's side of the family - such a fun bunch to be around. Thanksgiving morning we had our annual GAT 5K run and despite one major spill by my dad (he sustained only minor injuries) the race was a success!

matchie matchie

having fun at the park

11-26-11: Saturday was my birthday and we celebrated it bowling style.

I bowled my personal high score of 146! Just one small thing to point out: as you can see in the picture below, the player named GRAN is my dad (grandpa). It looks like he got bowled a 118...so let's see. 146 - me, 118 - dad........yup I won :)

It was a good birthday, thanks for letting me beat you dad (*wink*)

Only a few short days after getting home from Utah we purchased a new car! We sold our little Lancer (*sniff*) and bought a 2003 Toyota Highlander. We are officially a 'yota' family now with the Highlander joining our 4Runner in the garage.

love. it.

Oh Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree.....

Over the christmas break we spent a weekend up in Pine at our friends' family cabin.

They had a little loft/playroom area that Emma had a blast playing in.

Acting out the Nativity - Emma was one of the angels

Visiting Santa with all the Nelson cousins

12-22-11: Christmas party at Kathleen's house (only, Kathleen wasn't there because early that morning Thomas' sister, who lives in Utah, went into labor and had her baby girl that day!) Congrats Emily!

Making a gingerbread house (well, gingerbread train but that sounds weird)

12-24-11: We spent Christmas Eve with our sister-in-law's family (since Kathleen was out of town with Emily and the new baby, the Weeds were nice enough to invite us to eat dinner with them!) The food was DE-LISH and I hope they invite us over again (*wink wink*)

12-25-11: Santa definitely did good this year. Emma LOVES her toy car that he got her.

12-27-11: We celebrated our 3rd anniversary at the Cheesecake Factory. Our waiter brought out our slice of cheesecake with 'Happy Anniversary' written in chocolate on the plate. So sweet and special. Three years goes by soooo fast! I am so grateful to be married to my best friend and sweetheart.

Bathtime with Porter :)

12-31-11: For New Years Eve we had a BBQ at Thomas' parents house with friends and grandpa blew up the bouncy house for the kids to enjoy

We ate good food and played games and lit sparklers with the kids before they went to bed.

Thomas had two weeks off of school so OF COURSE he had to go camping. It wouldn't be a proper break without at least one camp out. He went with some of his buddies in his program to Devil's Chasm (don't ask me where that is, I have no idea) to these old indian ruins - pretty sweet.

Now that the holidays are over, Thomas is back in school and things are finally settling down, Emma and I are back to spending quality time together.